NEW DELHI: Dravidian ideology has no future, though used by some to win elections, as the future lies with development oriented politics, spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has said.
The AIADMK merger in Tamil Nadu that brought together rebel leader O Panneerselvam and chief minister E Palaniswami “is a good thing for the state” and it showed “both leaders were ready to bury their differences for the sake of the party and people, he told ET.
“We have to acknowledge that they realised that the people of the state had entrusted faith in them by giving their party a mandate and though the leader may have passed away, they will have to act responsibly and run the state. What happened yesterday is a good sign,” he said. The spiritual leader’s Isha Foundation is headquartered in Tamil Nadu.
He runs a number of educational and environmental organisations. Sadhguru Vasudev added some might raise Dravidian ideology during elections but it won’t work in the state anymore.
“There is no such thing as Dravidian ideology. Some people just made it up, may be to win elections. They felt some communities were exploitative and they kept using that as a way to blame the communities for everything going wrong. You can galvanise people like that but it doesn’t work for long. It is a relic of the past.” However, he warned against “pushing Tamil Nadu into feeling insecure, with attempts to impose Hindi,” as it will embolden fringe Tamil nationalistic groups.
“Recently they started writing signposts in Hindi there. There is no such policy. Some people just started doing that. When you do such a thing, you push Tamil Nadu back into the insecurity of thinking they are not being treated well in this country. It is extremely unwise to push people of a major state into insecurity. This will only empower fringe elements endorsing Tamil nationalism. We must be careful not to re-ignite such emotions. Sri Lanka has suffered much on account of that. We don’t want that here. Tamil is not just a culture, it is also a language. Tamil is a strong identity. One should not threaten that with any other language,” he added.
